Ballet Slippers or Adorable
When one brings up the topic of choice it seems to me that choice is a fairly relative term. What choice we have is based on our life circumstances, money, location, occupation and a great deal of many other influences. This leads me to believe that some choice is no more than an illusion. If I look at the choice of soda out there. In my mind as an American there are hundreds of different flavors and choices of soda. Cola alone has many options from Coke to Diet Coke to Pepsi to Diet Pepsi, Pepsi 10, Coke Zero, Pepsi Max, Pepsi Next to the various options of store brands and so on. Only a few years ago we were limited to Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. If this was the case does the new plethora of options mean we have more choices or does it just mean we now have the illusion of choice? Are we essentially choosing a variety of essentially the same thing? This leads me to believe that more options does not necessarily mean better choices, it only means more choices. Is Coke Zero really better than Diet Coke or does it just give me another choice in a world full of them.
I am a person of research. When looking to purchase an item I like to understand exactly what it is I am buying and get the best quality for the best value. When searching for a digital point and shoot camera it took me several years to buy one due to the fact that I had done so much research and realized that everything I wanted in a camera I could not find in only one camera. At the time one camera had hd video while the other got higher picture ratings and another had more settings options and the last had wifi built in. I wanted all of these for the price I was willing to spend. Had I not done all this research and realized the plethora of choices out there I probably would have just driven to my local Best Buy, found a camera I liked for the price I like and purchased it. Due to my research and realization of choices I then could not decide and simply gave up losing several years worth of quality photos and videos I could have taken. What then was the problem? Was it the number of choices I had or my inability to decide? This is something that still plagues me and on occasion when trying to decide on an expensive purchase I will turn to my wife and make the statement, "ignorance is bliss". By this I mean if I didn't know about all the choices out there life would be so much easier and I could decide what I wanted much more quickly.
In any case I believe that although more choices does not necessarily mean better choices it does mean that we still have a choice. In my opinion no choice is more often a bad thing than it is a good thing. When looking at internet or cable companies no choice in who your provider is leads to high prices and poor service. For two years I lived in a very poor part of the Philippines. People in this country had very little choice due to economic circumstances. Many could only choose from a few options for food, entertainment or transportation. They often have no choice of where they go to school, if they want a higher education or where they would like to work. This lack of choice leads to a lack of life style choices. This however does not necessarily mean they are unhappy. I found that many Filipinos are happier than many rich Americans that have a slew of choices.
What then does this mean for leadership? I've learned that choice only goes so far and that sometimes choice is not necessarily a good thing, although people do always have a choice. They can choose to do what their leadership says or ignore it and face the consequences. I've learned if I ask for volunteers or ask people to do something they are generally much more willing to do what I ask. However, I am mostly dealing with people that are themselves in leadership positions and are seasoned military veterans. Most of these people do what is asked of them without a push and even volunteer to do more then they are asked. I have found that many times choice is a good thing as long as there is not too much of it. Its when you give the option for unnecessary choices is that problems arise. When my wife asks my what I would like for dinner and gives me too many choices I quickly give up and tell her to decide. It only recently dawned on me that she may be doing this on purpose. She is giving me the illusion of choice only to get me to tell her to decide for me. Much like the choice of what shade of pink nail polish, sometimes this is just an illusion. In the end I feel that for the most part I agree with Dr. Lyengar. Choice over no choice is always the better option, however, I feel that choice can be taken to the extreme and then becomes a disservice to those that are making the choice. The choices almost become impossible.
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